Chapter 282
Chapter 282
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 282
Chapter Title: Even the Hounds of Tindalos Are Dogs
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The effects of the [Time Stop] spell have ended.
Nothing's happening?
Moon Kyung-nam thought that for a very brief moment, but he soon had to correct himself. No, far too much was happening.
Armed trucks pouring down from the sky?
Why the hell are those coming from up there?
His subordinates scattering in every direction for some reason?
Why are those guys flying?
And then the explosion that "suddenly" appeared right in front of Moon Kyung-nam.
KABOOOOM!!
"Arrrgh!"
Moon Kyung-nam went flying without a chance to react.
"Wh-what the-!?"
He spat out his bewilderment as he collapsed onto the ground.
Just moments ago, the situation had clearly been in his favor.
So why am I the one on the ground!?
What just happened? Magic? Did the enemy use some ability? Impossible. What's going on?
"Who's there! Who the hell- did this!?"
Moon Kyung-nam hurriedly extended his detection field.
He spread it out in all directions to interpret this bizarre incident affecting him and the entire construction site.
Vrrrrrr—
Information flooding in from every side. His brain racing at high speed to process it.
Rumble rumble—
Vibrations rising from the ground.
"An earthquake?!"
"Wh-what is this all of a sudden!?"
Right, an earthquake.
An earthquake was happening.
Unable to perceive the [Time Stop], Moon Kyung-nam simply concluded it was a sudden, surreal quake.
No, it wasn't just the earthquake. The explosion he'd just experienced wasn't an illusion or hallucination.
KABOOOOM! KABOOOOM!
Horrific explosions erupting from beneath the ground. Dirt and dust billowing everywhere.
"What are these explosions! Who did this! Who's responsible for this shit!"
Rumble rumble rumble—
If the earthquake had started between normal moments in time, more people might have been able to respond. But this one had begun during the stopped time.
Most people only realized it was an earthquake after they'd already fallen over.
Rumble rumble rumble—
"Gyaaah!?"
"Aaack!"
Screams spreading belatedly.
Even those who had been holding on couldn't cope with the successive explosions and chain quakes, collapsing one after another. Just when it seemed like they might barely scramble back up, another explosion hit.
"Eeekkk!"
Some were knocked down again by the shockwaves or sent flying outright.
And then, through the clouds of dust, Kim Shin-hwa's voice rang out.
"Hey, you Moon Kyung-nam bastard, didn't I tell you not to come here? Why don't you ever listen when people talk nicely? This isn't the time for that, Kim Shin-hwa! Ah, just stay put! Why are you crawling all the way over here to bother people? You— Kim Shin-hwa, Kim Shin-hwa! Behind you! Behind! Uwaaaah!"
What the hell is that nonsense?
"Wizard!"
And this was Moon Kyung-nam's most hated woman—that is, Moon Seung-hee's voice.
"Ah, Director Moon Seung-hee. Just hold on a bit! I'll get you out soon! Soon as I sort out my own problem, I'll come rescue you right away! Yeah, if it looks impossible, I'll outsource it and get you out no matter what!"
Kim Shin-hwa's response. Moon Kyung-nam, barely regaining his wits, pinpointed her location.
Kim Shin-hwa, draped in a gorgeous robe woven from the Milky Way itself.
"Uwaaaah! Stop following me!"
Moon Kyung-nam had thought she'd appeared to interfere with him, but Kim Shin-hwa was babbling incoherently while flying off in a random direction.
No, more precisely, something indescribably bizarre and outlandish was chas
[Time Stop]
* * *
She was being chased by water.
"No! Kim Shin-hwa! That's a monster from the corners of time! You can't escape with Time Stop! Ah, then what am I supposed to do! Uwaaaah!"
The Hounds of Tindalos.
The extradimensional monster that hunted time travelers was pursuing Kim Shin-hwa.
The Hounds of Tindalos shared no common traits with the animal known as a dog, yet Kim Shin-hwa's subconscious seemed to accept them as dogs.
Thanks to that subtle disconnect, full-blown madness didn't erupt, but she still felt a compulsive urge to flee.
And that wasn't the only problem.
Rumble rumble rumble!!
The earthquake struck again.
This time, it didn't end with just shaking.
The ground split open, and the entrance to pitch-black underground ruins expanded endlessly.
Successive quakes. Chaos. Roaring booms.
The people flailing about in confusion finally settled on a clear course of action.
"Uwaaaah!"
"Run away!!"
"Flee!"
If you want to live, run! Escape! Get out!
And then, a massive, amorphous mass of flesh surging up from underground. A horrific monster reminiscent of an abnormally enlarged amoeba.
CRUMBLE RUMBLE BOOM!!!
"Tekeli-li!!"
The shoggoth revealed itself with its signature grotesque cry.
"Monster! It's a monster!"
Even battle-hardened veteran fixers lost their minds, plunged into chaos or writhing on the ground in terror amid the horrific scene.
But even in this chaos, one person maintained his composure—
Moving toward a single goal.
"Stay down!"
His name was Curtain Call. He would likely become one of Moon Kyung-nam's nightmare figures later on.
"I'll split your skull!"
"N-no!"
Still sprawled on the ground, Moon Kyung-nam reached out a hand to weave a spell. Magical runes bloomed from his fingertips, spreading across the ground and branching out at tremendous speed.
[Stone Wall]
A spell he'd acquired differently from Kim Shin-hwa. Thus, the incantation used by his group, [The Ancient Voice], was in English.
CRUNCH CRUNCH!!
That didn't mean it produced radically different effects. A massive stone barrier erupted upward at incredible speed.
"Out of my way!"
KABOOM!
It was Curtain Call, charging in while taking lightning strikes to the body. The hastily erected stone wall only delayed him by a few seconds.
BAM!
A impact sound rang out a bit too early.
"So the Witch of Vasilisa said she'd raised a few monsters, and it looks like you're one of them?"
A grotesquely enormous physique, muscles hypertrophied beyond human limits, gray skin rough and tough enough to forcibly contain them.
He'd blocked Curtain Call's halberd—a war pick massive enough to evoke siege rams. "What are you? Get lost?"
Curtain Call's halberd swung wordlessly.
Curtain Call leaped into the air, spinning his entire body to attack the musclebound thug's head... but...
BAM!
It was blocked again.
"More importantly, you. Aren't you a fixer hired by Yeonam Construction?"
"So?"
"Then you can't get in our way. That idiot rolling on the ground over there is Yeonam Construction's director."
Contrary to the prejudices his appearance evoked, the man spoke common sense.
"Ah?"
Curtain Call grimaced and called out toward Moon Kyung-nam.
"You, what's your name?"
"Moon Kyung-nam! Director Moon Kyung-nam! Director at Yeonam Construction, heir in the Yeonam Group—"
Curtain Call cut Moon Kyung-nam's answer short and shouted.
"Your name wasn't on the list of people I'm supposed to protect. Die!"
"That's beca—"
Normally, no one would be dumb enough not to know the name, so they wouldn't bother listing it!
Moon Kyung-nam started to say that but suddenly clamped his mouth shut.
Wait, what's that?
His detection field had picked up something strange. If his interpretation was correct, that was...
KABOOOOM!
The massive impact from Curtain Call's halberd clashing with the thug's war pick.
The thug, blocking Curtain Call's attack again, spoke the words Moon Kyung-nam should have said himself.
"You must have a low IQ!"
KABOOM!
Curtain Call didn't know the name of the thug blocking him, but Baukarak did.
"Ugh, it's Rhino? What, you brought something like that?"
A mobster from the scrap alleys, doubling as a fixer.
He was a fixer, but unlike standard ones, he specialized in cult-friendly jobs, operating as an outlaw.
If Moon Kyung-nam hadn't hired him, he'd probably have answered the Manseil Church's call and gone down to Buyeo.
BAM! BAM! KABOOM!
Fierce shockwaves from their exchanges that no one else could dare interrupt.
Hiding behind the container Curtain Call had thrown earlier, Baukarak moved toward Moon Kyung-nam—or rather, toward Moon Seung-hee, detained by Moon Kyung-nam's private guards—and spoke into his smartphone.
"Please, do something about this mess! Kim Shin-hwa summoned a monster, and our team leader's trying to kill the client!"
- Hahaha, what a wild situation. But hey, as for the client stuff, it's Yeonam Construction's fault for not drawing up a proper contract, so don't worry.
"Contract? For real?"
It was a major corporation.
They wouldn't handle things that sloppily, right?
- It is covered pretty broadly, technically... Don't worry. Whether Moon Kyung-nam lives or dies, no one's gonna sue us.
Baukarak had vaguely heard the disastrous rumors about the Moon family, made up of human scum.
If someone killed Moon Kyung-nam, his brothers would probably send a grand gift and a wink.
Provided they had the right connections, of course. Baukarak didn't.
"This isn't some double contract, is it? Like fraud? Does Collie know?"
- Collie knows the gist. Not sure if he gets it, though.
Baukarak glanced over at Curtain Call.
"Headddd!!"
Curtain Call leaping and attacking from all directions.
KABOOM!
"Grk, you little shit!"
Rhino was gradually being pushed back. If they kept up the one-on-one, Curtain Call's victory seemed certain.
"Take this!"
Kim Shin-hwa's voice from the sky.
Rumble! Rumble rumble! KABOOOOOM!!
Lightning of enormous scale pouring from the sudden storm clouds.
Baukarak briefly thought Kim Shin-hwa was casting magic to cheer on Curtain Call, but the bolt struck elsewhere.
"Kruriririk!"
What the hell is that?
Baukarak felt an urge to rub his eyes. The indescribably horrific four-legged beast vanished somewhere to the left—beyond his perception—and reappeared from the angular edge of heavy machinery behind Kim Shin-hwa.
"Kruriririk!"
"Ah, damn it! Curtain Call, no time to help you, so hurry up and deal with that fatass!"
"Shut up! Interrupt me and you're dead too!"
BAM!
Baukarak sighed and raised his smartphone again.
"Tudor, no matter how I look at it, Collie doesn't understand the contract? Who's pulling that crazy bitch Kim Shin-hwa's strings for this crap? And why didn't you tell me beforehand?"
- No choice. It was a last-minute plan thrown together at dawn. And the one who came up with it...
Tudor explained to Baukarak, who grappled with it.
How much of this absurdity should he believe?
"Why would that masked lunatic Kim Shin-hwa get involved in a major corp heir's business?"
- Curious? Rescue Moon Seung-hee first. Like I said, Collie agreed.
"Hmm...."
The call ended, and Baukarak sighed. All this was planned just to screw over Moon Kyung-nam?
Being used like this grated on him, but the reward Tudor promised was enough to erase that displeasure.
"So that masked lunatic's got that much cash, huh?"
If they were paying that much, he could stomach being used like this.
Amid the horrific chaos, both Kim Shin-hwa and Curtain Call were distracted elsewhere. Meanwhile, Moon Kyung-nam turned his gaze elsewhere.
"That container... What did that bastard hide in there?"
He'd sensed strong magic and thought Kim Shin-hwa was hiding there, but she'd popped up in the dumbest place imaginable. So what was inside?
[Enchanted Vision]
Moon Kyung-nam activated a new spell, and soon his left eye reflected the container's interior.
"Ahh, I see. So that's it. Understood. [Great Origin], you have prepared even this for your apostle!"
Gaining certainty, Moon Kyung-nam felt intense euphoria.
"Yes, the [Great Origin] sees all! Not only have you granted me new power, but you've even prepared a tool to smite my foes!"
A magic crystal barrier installed inside the container. And within it, Lee Sun-bin, bound in restraints.
As Kim Shin-hwa had checked earlier, Lee Sun-bin was currently under the influence of the abyssal entity Moon Kyung-nam served—the [Great Origin].